Business News of Saturday, 26 March 2016

Source: kasapafmonline.com

US$50,000.00, GHc1,518,410.10 paid into EOCO accounts: No official receipts

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An amount of US$50,000.00, GHC 1,518,410.10 which were paid into the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) Exhibit Dollar, Exhibit Cedis and two Government of Ghana accounts respectively between June and November 2012 from various payees were not covered with official receipt, 2014 Auditor General’s Report has revealed.

According to the report although these monies were recorded in the respective cash books and lodged into the respective accounts, accounts, the non-issuance of receipts blurts transparency and denies assurances of completeness.

The omission the report said could be attributed to the ineffective supervision by the Head of Finance to ensure that, officials receipts are issued for all monies received.

“If this practice is not stopped, money received could end up in private pockets without Management easily detecting it. We recommended and Management agreed to ensure the Head of Finance supervise and reconcile the work of the cashier to confirm that official receipts are issued to cover all receipts in future” the report noted.

It further said contrary to Regulations 48 of the FAR, a review of the revenue received and lodged to bank revealed that cash on hand of GHC 460.82 and US$ 1,800.00 as at 31 December 2012 had not been lodged to the bank at the time of the audit in April 2013.

“An interview with the Cashier indicated that, an attempt was made to lodge the US$1,800.00 to the exhibit account at Bank of Ghana but was refused by the bank official due to a dirty US$100.00 note. We are of the view that, the difference of US$1,700.00 could have been banked leaving the balance of US$ 100.00 for necessary steps to be taken.”